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Drug WarRant
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Saturday, May 17, 2008 |
Rachel Hoffman lives on
 There's lots more coverage of Rachel Hoffman's murder every day.
Rachel Hoffman's friends and supporters protested police department actions and remembered Rachel.
And much more information continues to surface...
Hoffman didn't have "Confidential Informant" training
TPD officials said they didn't train Hoffman because she was already involved in the drug business and knew what she was doing.
Yeah. Because she already sold pot to her college friends, she was perfectly trained to go undercover with marked bills and suddenly buy large amounts of different drugs and a gun. Right.
Told to Inform, They Live at Risk
In Hoffman's case, it was the work of another informer that led to her own work for the police.
On April 15, an informer told Tallahassee police that Hoffman had sold marijuana in the past but hadn't done so recently, according to police records. [...]
Two days after police got the informer's tip, a Tallahassee police officer stopped Hoffman as she was getting into her car.
The officer asked Hoffman if she had any drugs in her apartment. A quarter-pound of marijuana, she said, plus two ecstasy pills and four Valiums, according police records.
While she waited, police obtained a search warrant and found the marijuana and ecstasy in the apartment. She wasn't arrested.
Instead, with the prospect of serving time for more serious charges, the graduate of Countryside High and Florida State University agreed to work with police.
I'd really like to be able to hear from Rachel what actually happened at that stop, or some of what happened after. Unfortunately, she's dead, so we can't ask her.
Details Surface in Hoffman Case
Hoffman, 23, had $13,000 in recorded bills to buy a gun, 2 ounces of cocaine and 1,500 ecstasy pills May 7 from two men, Deneilo Bradshaw, 22, of Tallahassee, and Andrea Green, 25, of Perry. But somehow the drug deal went bad and Hoffman's body was found the next day in Taylor County.
Wait. $13,000 for a gun, 2 ounces of cocaine and 1,500 ecstasy pills???? But I've always thought that these things were much more expensive.
Hmm... do you think the police sometimes exaggerate about street value? But of course they do.
Then we learn a little more about a truly messed up operation
On May 7, Hoffman drove alone in her 2005 Volvo to meet the two men, according to the reports. About 6:40 p.m., Green called her on her cell phone and told her to meet them in the parking lot of the Royalty Plant Nursery. The nursery is north of Forestmeadows on North Meridian Road.
Pender last saw Hoffman on North Meridian Road south of Forestmeadows, according to the court document. Hoffman called Pender and said she was following Green and Bradshaw in their car down Gardner Road. Pender said he told Hoffman not to follow them, but Hoffman hung up.
About 6:45 p.m., investigators lost contact with her. Calls to her phone went unanswered, and the monitoring device stopped working.
At some point, Special Agent L. Andris of the Drug Enforcement Administration said he saw two men in a gray BMW parked in front of the nursery as he drove by.
Jeanette Moran, DEA spokeswoman, said the Tallahassee Police Department had asked the DEA to assist them in the case. She wouldn't comment further.
When investigators reached the 1000 block of Gardner Road, they found one back flip flop, one spent .25 caliber bullet, two live .25 caliber rounds and tire skid marks. Hoffman was wearing black flip flops when she was reported missing.
If only she could talk to us.
...
Somebody asked me recently if I thought Rachel Hoffman's case was getting additional attention in general because she was an attractive, young, white girl.
The answer is... most definitely yes.
It's a simple fact that is part of our culture and part of the history of this drug war.
A critical part of the drug war has historically been to marginalize certain segments of society. And so even now, when a young black or hispanic man is shown on the news in a drug bust it seems somehow... unimportant. That is partly due to the inherent racism of the drug war, both in perception and in percentages of arrests and incarcerations.
But when the press gets hold of the murder of a young white girl with so much potential, it always eats it up.
And so while it may seem... cold to "take advantage" of the death of Rachel Hoffman, there is the fact that she can accomplish something important because of who she was and the tragedy of her demise. She can draw national attention to the problems of the drug war and the use of confidential informants.
I can't count the number of times I've heard police recently say that the drug war wouldn't work without confidential informants.
Law enforcement officials say such work is necessary to get drugs and bad guys off the streets.
"The drug world is subversive, and there is no way to penetrate it without confidential informants," Tallahassee police Officer David McCranie said.
Statistics are hard to come by, but officials in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties say the use of informers is common, and sometimes they get hurt.
Rachel has a lot of work to do, and we can give her a hand.
11:38:58 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Friday, May 16, 2008 |
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Thursday, May 15, 2008 |
Obama, the GOP, and the Constitution
Daniel writes me with this link saying: "those repubs are insane."
And I've got to agree.
One of the most bizarre things I've read in the silly season of politics. The GOP seems to be claiming that Obama's suggestion -- that he'd focus federal efforts on something other than interfering with state medical marijuana laws -- is somehow a violation of the oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Barack Obama's pledge to stop Executive agencies from implementing laws passed by Congress raises serious doubts about his understanding of what the job of the President of the United States actually is. His refusal to enforce the law reveals that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience necessary to do the job of President, or that he fundamentally lacks the judgment to carry out the most basic functions of the Executive Branch. What other laws would Barack Obama direct federal agents not to enforce?"
This makes my head explode on so many levels.
After 7 1/2 years of rubber-stamping the Bush Presidency, someone in the GOP apparently found a copy of the Constitution... and then failed to read it.
The Bush administration has quite possibly been the greatest danger to the Constitution in history, and the GOP (as well as the Democrats for the most part) have sat idly by and cheered.
Even when the administration has not been openly subverting the Constitution, the President has simply decided that he can interpret the Constitution his own way and ignore any laws that he wishes (remember signing statements?)
So now the GOP has decided that anything less than full-on federal harassment of law-abiding medical marijuana patients is a violation of the Constitution (when in fact, any proper reading of the Constitution would make the federal government's actions illegal).
Wow.
7:59:40 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Marijuana and driving, take 327
Yet another driving study that confirms what we already know. This one specifically compared THC intoxication and alcohol intoxication.
THC primarily caused elevation in physical effort and physical discomfort during the drive while alcohol tended to affect sleepiness level. After THC administration, subjects drove significantly slower than in the control condition, while after alcohol ingestion, subjects drove significantly faster than in the control condition. No THC effects were observed after 24h on any of the measures.
No, it's not good to drive while impaired in any way, including being tired, or talking on a cell phone, or under the effect of prescription drugs. But there is a dramatically different danger of driving drunk compared to driving under the influence of marijuana.
Those on marijuana, as a rule, drive more cautiously because they are aware of their impairment, while those on alcohol drive more recklessly. This is why the boogieman of roads full of drugged drivers from marijuana legalization is such nonsense.
6:55:47 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Cognitive Distortion
There's one problem often faced by those of us well versed in the facts of the drug war. We know the history and the science. We're able to clearly distinguish the difference between negative consequences of drugs and negative consequences of prohibition. Our factual knowledge base is, quite frankly, overwhelming, and all of it points clearly, unmistakably, and inexorably to reform.
We're even open to carefully considering opposing arguments (which fail the test of reason time after time), thus strengthening our confidence in the comprehensive nature of our information.
This didn't happen overnight in most cases. It was the result of a lot of research, observation, and critical thinking.
So when we come across someone who opposes reform, we assume one of two things:
- They are profiting from the drug war (politically, financially, or sadomoralistically) and thus are uninterested in the truth.
- They simply don't have the facts yet.
Once we're relatively sure that the person is not category 1, then all we have to do is educate them. Right?
And yet, sometimes we find ourselves baffled by the reaction.
There are individuals for whom you could prove conclusively that:
- Legalization would result in less crime
- Legalization would result in reduced use of drugs by children
- Legalization would result in reduced drug abuse
- Legalization would result in enormous financial savings
- Legalization would result in dismantling of dangerous criminal organizations
... and they would still look at you like you were a crazy person bent on destruction of civilization as we know it for even suggesting consideration of legalization, even in controlled, regulated and limited situations.
These people are suffering from a form of cognitive distortion. [The term is most often used in relation to cognitive therapy to deal with things like depression, but I think it's also appropriate to this situation.]
The cause? An authority figure need combined with a lifetime of propaganda. This combination sets the information down in pathways that cannot be disrupted by mere facts. (The conflict between factual information and established pathways can even cause unpleasant cognitive dissonance, resulting in lashing out against the person with the facts.)
Now I'm probably generalizing way too much in this post, but I'm guessing that a weak and/or fearful mind is much more susceptible to this kind of thing.
On the other hand... if, as a child, you found yourself on occasion saying to yourself "Hey, my teacher got that one wrong," -- and it was because of your own knowledge and not blind adherence to some other authority figure (church/parents) -- then I'm guessing you're probably less susceptible to propaganda and this form of cognitive distortion.
How do you deal with those with cognitive distortion? (Other than years of therapy.) It's not easy. Those with only mildly set propaganda pathways may be dislodged through gentle yet persistent repetition of facts. It also helps, of course, to eliminate the propaganda reinforcement (we've got to do something about the ONDCP).
Maybe, once we've legalized drugs, we can use some of those hundreds of thousands of empty prison cells and convert them to mental health facilities to help the cognitively disabled. We wouldn't want them to suffer.
.... thus ends today's two-bit psychoanalysis.
9:32:35 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 |
Being a drug dealer sure is lucrative
... particularly if you're also wearing a badge.
"The agents actually brought with them 146 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of an undercover vehicle," [...]
In addition to posing as drug buyers, [undercover officers] pose as drug dealers and the marijuana will be useful bait to trap more traffickers down the road.
The seized boat will be auctioned off and the sheriff's office and the other police agencies that took part in the bust can keep the money. They'll also split the cash the suspects paid for the marijuana.
And they get to keep the cash that we paid them through taxes, too!
And we get...
?
Seriously, we get...
?
[Thanks, Mike]
7:27:34 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Words, words... they're all we have to go on
Chief Dennis Jones, describing murdered Rachel Hoffman:
"She was completing a diversion program for possession of over 20 grams of marijuana and pending felony charges for possession with intent to sell MDA (or Ecstacy), maintaining a drug house, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia."
Sounds pretty hard core, doesn't it?
Translation:
Rachel was a college student who sold pot to her friends. She was first caught with less than an ounce of pot and later caught with 5 ounces of pot and six ecstasy pills.
On the basis of that, they decided she should go to hard core dealers and attempt to purchase 1500 ecstasy pills, two ounces of cocaine, and a gun.
9:13:18 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
Program Note
WFLA-FM 100.7, Tallahassee, FL
http://www.wflafm.com
Wednesday, May 14th at 7:30 am EDT
"The Morning Show" with Preston Scott and Eric Eggers
Guest: Mike Jones of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Topic: The Rachael Hoffman murder
11:37:40 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Ut oh. Another scary marijuana story...
If you smoke between two ounces and nine ounces of marijuana every week, it's possible that you might be at an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. But we don't actually have any, uh, actual evidence of it.
Link
5:07:50 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Useless
David Harsanyi has a good read in the Denver Post: The government's sorta-kinda-maybe logic
It could be argued that the most useless job in Washington, D.C., is held by John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He's otherwise known as the country's Drug Czar.
And when you consider the spectacular number of useless jobs in Washington, that's quite an accomplishment.
No one is saying, of course, that it's easy being a figurehead of a cost-inefficient organization charged with implementing the biggest domestic policy disaster since Prohibition.
Ouch.
He goes on to attack the latest nonsense from Walters about teens, marijuana and mental health:
"Adolescent marijuana use may be a factor that triggers psychosis, depression, and other mental illness," explains Walters, who admits "research about causality is still ongoing."
Ongoing, doubtlessly, until Walters unearths the answer he's looking for.
It's not often you see half-baked phrases like "Could Actually" in the title of a study. You'll also notice Walters also says it "may be a factor." Because, in other words, "it may not" be a factor at all.
And then he really nails it:
And in the end, it is also irrelevant. Children shouldn't use drugs, and even if drugs were legalized, no one is advocating children should be able to use them.
Read the whole thing -- it's a really excellent OpEd.
8:23:49 AM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Monday, May 12, 2008 |
We're getting snubbed by... Ecuador
Unless we own their government and have it heavily on payroll, we're not particularly popular in Latin American countries these days.
Ecuador Opposes Outpost in American War on Drugs
They don't like our war on drugs, either.
As someone who works in the arts, I like President Correa's hiring decisions:
In a shake-up of the armed forces in April, Mr. Correa picked Javier Ponce, a poet who advocates less military cooperation with United States, as defense minister.
And Ponce makes the obvious point:
"Should Ecuador have a base in Miami? Or New Jersey?" Mr. Ponce, 59, said. "The decision of the government is not to renew this accord."
10:21:28 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Oh, the lies they love to tell so well
Glenn Greenwald is always on top of government abuse of power, and recently he's been all over the case of the military analysts for the major networks that were being prepped by the government to feed propaganda to us, their employers.
Mona, over at the art of the possible, helps to put it in perspective from our point of view...
But tax-payer subsidized psy-ops is nothing new; the DEA has been doing it for years, as for example by publishing a "debate manual" (originally titled How to Hold Your Own in a Drug Legalization Debate) to use during exchanges with those advocating drug-policy reform. (But the DEA counsels avoiding any debate at all, if possible.)
We've been paying for the government to fund lies and propaganda defending its own tyrannical powers since well before Bush and 9/11.
Yep. We're used to it. The important thing is not to get complacent about it.
There's something horribly, treasonously wrong in a country of the people, by the people and for the people, where the government functions by lying to the people.
9:31:08 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Sunday, May 11, 2008 |
Is it possible to evaluate the California Medical Marijuana Experiment?
Eric Sterling does some interesting musing and wandering in Medical Marijuana in California -- Questions
I am intellectually satisfied that marijuana has a wide range of medical values. [...]
Therefore I believe marijuana should be available to patients who need it. So how do I understand what is happening in California? [...]
There is a large experiment underway in California yet there probably is no consensus on what the experiment actually is about. Is it an experiment in medical marijuana? Or is it an experiment as Joel Stein says, in legalized marijuana for adults over 18. Certainly it will be hard to evaluate because the experiment is not being controlled or designed.
There are important questions: What is the actual role of the physicians who are issuing the recommendations? Are they facilitating the proper treatment of serious medical conditions that have been resistant to conventional medical treatment? Are they serving to block improper juvenile use of marijuana? Does their "gatekeeper" role help mitigate the abuse of marijuana?
It is time to ask the academic world to step forward to begin to seriously evaluate this experiment.
I understand the questions, but disagree with the final conclusion.
It must be disconcerting for those who spent so much time and effort developing and fighting for medical marijuana in California to be successful, and yet at the same time be unable to even identify their baby.
As a pure scientific medical venture, California's medical marijuana movement was hopelessly doomed. The federal government's unjustified active opposition insured that the valuable "state laboratory" concept (as envisioned by Justice Brandeis) could not function. Therefore California's medical marijuana "system" is a political/social chimera, not a scientifically controlled experiment.
Asking some in the academic world to put something that chaotic into a clinically analyzed box could be disastrous. Lacking rigidly defined controls, the science will be seen to be undefinable, therefore failed, when in fact it is the public policy that has failed the science.
Imagine any other scientific experiment where the very ability to control the environment of the experiment was denied the experimenter -- where testing of new food crops, for example, had to be done à la Johnny Appleseed. It would be very hard to be sure of the purity of your results, and yet there would still be something to learn (and enjoy) from each apple tree, until the day that the world woke up and allowed controlled tree farms to develop the best apples.
Medical marijuana in California is a cruelly grafted beast, yet is something to be treasured for whatever combination of things it has managed to be, until the government is willing to allow it to become something more controlled and measurable.
9:40:57 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Responding to the Drug Czar
One of the best responses I've seen so far to the latest nonsense from Walters is Tim King of the Salem-News.com (Oregon): New Federal Report on Marijuana Use is Misleading, Groups Say
Is this a reaction to the beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition?
(SALEM, Ore.) - A new federal government report on the ill effects of marijuana on teens may be a last ditch effort to demonize the medical weed before it sees its own day of emancipation. As it stands, even the most hardcore marijuana legalization advocates do not support children using anything that causes intoxication.
This new report uses scare tactics and seems to regard medical facts as a meaningless burden...
The whole thing is a fun read. It would be nice to see more of his kind of thing show up in the major news outlets.
7:26:31 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink |
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Minnesotans for Compassionate Care are having to counter some 
